Dan DeLuca

Music Critic

Dan DeLuca is an Inquirer pop music critic. But his "In the Mix" column in the Weekend section ventures further afield, into books, movies, TV, the Internet, graphic novels and anything you might call "popular culture."

Fans of the seriously talented Philadelphia songwriter BC Camplight - real name: Brian Christinzio - might be wondering what happened to the singer and keyboard player after he disappeared from the scene in 2011.

Sure, Philadelphians can still hear Christinzio on a daily basis by listening to his theme music to WHYY-FM radio's Newsworks Tonight. But he's been missing in action since decamping to Manchester, England to work on his third album after, in his own words, "wasting a ton of time being a bum in Philadelphia."

Christinzio got in touch this week from Manchester with the news that he's signed a record deal with Bella Union, the prestige label that's the UK home to the Flaming Lips and Beach House, among others, and is run by Cocteau Twins guitarist Simon Raymonde. The label will release the third BC Camplight album, How To Die In The North, internationally later this year.

Recalling his last days in Philadelphia before moving across the pond, Christinzio had this to say, via email. "My life fell apart a bit and I became known as a guy who blew it. I left Philly in 2011 and moved to Manchester. I was just turning into a not so great guy and had grown disillusioned with the music business. I felt that if I got out of Philly maybe I could rededicate myself to writing and recording an album that couldn't be ignored."

After getting attention in England with a single called "Thieves In Antigua" in 2012, two months ago, Christinzio signed with Bella Union, who will release How To Die In The North, which Christinzio calls "without a doubt the record I've been waiting my whole life to make," this coming winter. He'll be touring throughout Europe and the U.S. through 2015.

Christinzio, who recently produced Philadelphia songwriter Bill Ricchini's third Summer Fiction album in Manchester, says How To Die is more guitar oriented than his previous piano-pop work. "This record has very little piano and is dark, sad and fairly aggressive in parts," he says.

To sample what's in store, check out a live version of the album's "Atom Bomb," recorded for the BBC, below.